Security device on coins

So I went to a Taiwanese monastery for a month (fun story there), and noticed that their 10NT and 50NT coins have a real neat security device!

Look at the coin straight on, and there's nothing.

Tilt it to one side and you get "wu shi" ("50" in Chinese characters).

Tilt it to the other side and you get "50" in arabic numerals.


I've never seen a coin with a security device like this before. Pretty neat!

 

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That's a cool feature. I can't find any information on the tilting effect. I did read somewhere that the 3 dots are braille.
Thanks for sharing!

 

@mlov43 Do you have any information on the feature of this coin?

 

It's interesting that they would put such a complicated thing on these coins - which aren't really worth that much. 50NT buys you 2 bottles of tea or whatever from a vending machine ($1.56).

They even have the same tilting effect on the 10NT ($0.31); this time one side is 2 Chinese characters and the other side are 2 different characters.

 

Went on Wikipedia; turns out that effect is called a "latent image".

Googling it turned this up:
http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php?topic=19864.0

 

They're pretty neat... but don't be shy; tell your monastery story.

 

Russia has coins like this.

 

so this summer i had nothing better to do so i applied for a buddhist monastic retreat in taiwan. turns out it wasn't as fun as I had hoped...
first 2 weeks involved up to six hours of class per day. Then a lot of walking from here to there to there to here.
Next 7 days was a silent meditation retreat, where we're forbidden to talk or communicate. Spent about 7 hours a day in a meditation hall, just sitting there. Did I mention that we had to climb 7 flights of stairs thrice a day to get there?

Plus, its always around 90F, with 90% humidity. I hate this place!

 

Next time go to Vegas

 

No Kung-Fu?
Did u have to shave your head?

 

You definitely have my sympathy ... Well, latent images on coins were not news to me (see your worldofcoins link) but thanks for the, hmm, spiritual aspects of your report!

Christian

 

Haha... glad I'm not the only one.

 

There actually is an Italian shaolin master of some kind here.
I went from hair almost touching my shoulders to a straight zero. My scalp cries out in regret every time I think of my mop of formerly luscious hair...

 

Oh by the way. On day 7 of the meditation retreat, we had a fun little prostration pilgrimage up to a Buddha statue. At a rate of one prostration every 30 seconds, the entire thing took around 90 minutes. We did somewhere between 150-180 full forehead-to-the-ground prostrations on the rough and fry-an-egg hot asphalt.
I've now developed a greater appreciation for the little things in life...

 

The Japanese 500 Yen has a similar feature.

 

some Canadian coins also have this.

 

Should have asked before you made plans.

Imagine doing this for years. The monks do these things to keep in tune both physically and mentally with themselves. They also rely on nature rather than excessive things, which means you probably ate no meat during your stay. To those that embrace this practice and their beliefs, it really relaxes and trains your body and brain. Oh and I bet you had to walk up and down hills.

 

30 days of vegetarian later, I need - not want - NEED a California Burrito with extra carne asada. Mmmm.

Walking? Holy moly. Our dorm was as far away as possible from everything, so even going to the mess hall took 15 minutes. Good exercise though

 

As much as I love nature and quietness, I wouldn't last a week.

 

I have visited Taiwan many times and I love the place. Your stay at the monastery sounds like good training, and hopefully you got something out of it other than a few jokes and complaints. The haircut (eyebrows too?) helped insure that you had no bad hair days!